Google puts the Nest Learning Thermostat on the Play Store

It's still the same price, but now it's in the same store as everything else.

We haven't seen Google do much with Nest since buying the company for $3.2 billion back in January. Nest makes a connected thermostat and smoke detector, and it's a good bet that Google is rolling the company into its smart home division. Today we finally see the first public Google/Nest crossover: the Nest Learning Thermostat is now available through the Google Play Store.

Nest has been selling the device directly for some time, but now the thermostat is in Google's primary store next to smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks, and the Chromecast. The device is the same second-generation version that has been on sale since 2012, and it's still at the normal price of $249. Nest's other product, the Nest Protect, isn't yet up on the Play Store. Sales of the smart smoke detector have been halted due to problems with the "Nest Wave" alarm deactivation feature.

Nest is even running a promotion for Earth Day. For every Nest device sold today on Google Play, the company will plant a tree.

Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron.amadeo@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo

I installed one of these for my parents last summer. They have seen a legitimate 20%+ savings on their energy bills month versus previous month of the previous calendar year. I'd get one, but my electric bill isn't high enough to justify it (the savings would take way too long to pay off the investment in the new gear).

I really had no desire to own one of these before Google bought them, and now I have even less desire.

There are far cheaper non-connected thermostats that can be configured to turn on the air/heat before you get home, etc. and vary temperature throughout the day without having to "learn" your habits, and without being fooled by household pets wandering into their field of view. Then you add on the fact that you're not introducing yet another "tracking" device in to your home.

I just don't see the draw. Yes it's nice to be able to tweak your thermostat remotely, but for 95% of the year, you should be able to get by with a simple daily or week/weekend program that most sub-$100 thermostats offer.

In other words, you don't need to spend $250 on an internet-connect thermostat to save money on energy. Use the one you have and actually set up the programmable temperature settings.

Edit: Gotta love multiple thumbs-downs with no rationalization of why anything I said is wrong or controversial.

There are far cheaper non-connected thermostats that can be configured to turn on the air/heat before you get home, etc. and vary temperature throughout the day without having to "learn" your habits, and without being fooled by household pets wandering into their field of view. Then you add on the fact that you're not introducing yet another "tracking" device in to your home.

FWIW, we have two Nests (bought prior to Google's acquisition) and two cats, and have never seen the thermostats be spoofed by cat movement. Large dogs may be a different issue?

I just don't see the draw. Yes it's nice to be able to tweak your thermostat remotely, but for 95% of the year, you should be able to get by with a simple daily or week/weekend program that most sub-$100 thermostats offer.

In other words, you don't need to spend $250 on an internet-connect thermostat to save money on energy. Use the one you have and actually set up the programmable temperature settings.

True. But it's a lovely device, with a very good UI on the device itself, and a good remote programming from any device or browser. If both my spouse and I are working but one of us decides to head home early, no need to arrive at a cold (in winter) or hot (in summer) house; just goose the temperature before leaving the office.

I often see people decrying that "nothing is made well anymore", but observe their buying habits driving that trend. There are cheaper thermostats, and there are programmables that do most of what the Nest does, but I haven't seen any that do it looking as good on the wall as Nest does. I'm not sure why that makes people who value that combination, and have the money to pay for it, silly, which I infer you think we are?

Having said that, I likely won't be buying any further Nest products now that Google owns them. I'm just not interesting in telling Google even more about what happens in my home than they can already infer from my browsing habits. :-p

I have this wonderful thing called a programmable thermostat... I set it to the temperatures I want at each time of the day and leave it to do it's thing. It comes on about 10 minutes before I get in from work and the house is warming through nicely by the time I come in the door. If I'm going to be in late or going away I just set it in away mode for however long is necessary before I leave.

What benefit does NEST offer that would make it worth $250 plus installation costs etc? Maybe I'm not the target market but I don't really find it hard to use my existing thermostat to avoid heating an empty house...

(As an aside... one tree per $250 device? Really? Pretty sure they could afford a few more trees than that...)

I'm still bemused that this energy-efficient thermostat is somehow incompatible with the energy-efficient HVAC system in my LEED-certified building.

Here's hoping the third generation model supports three-speed fans and whatever the heck else is in my system, because I would love to have some smart technology managing the (free) primary vs. (expensive) auxiliary heat.

I have this wonderful thing called a programmable thermostat... I set it to the temperatures I want at each time of the day and leave it to do it's thing. It comes on about 10 minutes before I get in from work and the house is warming through nicely by the time I come in the door. If I'm going to be in late or going away I just set it in away mode for however long is necessary before I leave.

What benefit does NEST offer that would make it worth $250 plus installation costs etc? Maybe I'm not the target market but I don't really find it hard to use my existing thermostat to avoid heating an empty house...

(As an aside... one tree per $250 device? Really? Pretty sure they could afford a few more trees than that...)

What about those of us that don't really operate on much of a schedule? I'd love to be able to remotely override my heating settings so my furnace doesn't turn on when I'm not home. Unfortunately, the NEST doesn't really work with my furnace. I have a RHEEM fully modulating furnace, and wiring it to a NEST would only allow it to operate as a 2-stage system.

Also, you're welcome to go plant as many trees as you want. Google is doing the tree thing as a promotion. It isn't like they owe you any more than you purchase.

I have this wonderful thing called a programmable thermostat... I set it to the temperatures I want at each time of the day and leave it to do it's thing. It comes on about 10 minutes before I get in from work and the house is warming through nicely by the time I come in the door. If I'm going to be in late or going away I just set it in away mode for however long is necessary before I leave.

What benefit does NEST offer that would make it worth $250 plus installation costs etc? Maybe I'm not the target market but I don't really find it hard to use my existing thermostat to avoid heating an empty house...

(As an aside... one tree per $250 device? Really? Pretty sure they could afford a few more trees than that...)

What about those of us that don't really operate on much of a schedule? I'd love to be able to remotely override my heating settings so my furnace doesn't turn on when I'm not home. Unfortunately, the NEST doesn't really work with my furnace. I have a RHEEM fully modulating furnace, and wiring it to a NEST would only allow it to operate as a 2-stage system.

This. I work from home randomly 2-3 times per week, and EVERY DAY I forget to override the schedule until it gets cold inside, at which point I have to crank the heat to get it back up to normal.

I have this wonderful thing called a programmable thermostat... I set it to the temperatures I want at each time of the day and leave it to do it's thing. It comes on about 10 minutes before I get in from work and the house is warming through nicely by the time I come in the door. If I'm going to be in late or going away I just set it in away mode for however long is necessary before I leave.

What benefit does NEST offer that would make it worth $250 plus installation costs etc? Maybe I'm not the target market but I don't really find it hard to use my existing thermostat to avoid heating an empty house...

(As an aside... one tree per $250 device? Really? Pretty sure they could afford a few more trees than that...)

*Those* programmable thermostats aren't backed by millions in marketing/advertising/website design to make people feel special when they buy their products.

I have this wonderful thing called a programmable thermostat... I set it to the temperatures I want at each time of the day and leave it to do it's thing. It comes on about 10 minutes before I get in from work and the house is warming through nicely by the time I come in the door. If I'm going to be in late or going away I just set it in away mode for however long is necessary before I leave.

What benefit does NEST offer that would make it worth $250 plus installation costs etc? Maybe I'm not the target market but I don't really find it hard to use my existing thermostat to avoid heating an empty house...

(As an aside... one tree per $250 device? Really? Pretty sure they could afford a few more trees than that...)

What about those of us that don't really operate on much of a schedule? I'd love to be able to remotely override my heating settings so my furnace doesn't turn on when I'm not home. Unfortunately, the NEST doesn't really work with my furnace. I have a RHEEM fully modulating furnace, and wiring it to a NEST would only allow it to operate as a 2-stage system.

Also, you're welcome to go plant as many trees as you want. Google is doing the tree thing as a promotion. It isn't like they owe you any more than you purchase.

I think the only one that can do that is Carrier's infinity setup. Should only cost you around $10k to swap it out

I'm still bemused that this energy-efficient thermostat is somehow incompatible with the energy-efficient HVAC system in my LEED-certified building.

Here's hoping the third generation model supports three-speed fans and whatever the heck else is in my system, because I would love to have some smart technology managing the (free) primary vs. (expensive) auxiliary heat.

I'm still bemused that this energy-efficient thermostat is somehow incompatible with the energy-efficient HVAC system in my LEED-certified building.

Here's hoping the third generation model supports three-speed fans and whatever the heck else is in my system, because I would love to have some smart technology managing the (free) primary vs. (expensive) auxiliary heat.

Curious, what hvac system do you have?

You'll enjoy this:

I moved in a few weeks ago, and I'd taken it to be a 2-pipe fan coil system with electric auxiliary heat, simply because that's what the installer had programmed the thermostat for.

But, my curiosity having been piqued by all of this, I popped open the HVAC unit for the first time just now – and discovered explicit instructions for programming the thermostat for a 4-pipe fan coil system, because that's what it is.

Regardless, Nest doesn't officially support it because it has a three-speed fan; I'd have to pick a fan speed and stick with it. So instead I've gone ahead and left that $150 thermostat right where it is, complete with its automatic fan speed selection; and now that I've discovered it hardly affects my energy bill at all, I've just disabled its scheduling mode so I won't even have to think about it anymore.

I installed one of these for my parents last summer. They have seen a legitimate 20%+ savings on their energy bills month versus previous month of the previous calendar year. I'd get one, but my electric bill isn't high enough to justify it (the savings would take way too long to pay off the investment in the new gear).

They definitely work.

I have one, and this has been my experience as well. Most of my savings have come from the "Auto Away" feature (that senses when you're not home off-schedule and switches to a user-set mode that uses less energy, automatically switching back when you return), and the optimizations the system makes by both learning from your adjustments and then later tweaking my settings to use less energy.

I bought mine about two years ago, and it fully paid for itself after about 13-15 months of use, if I've done my math right.

My only complaint is that their support team sucks rocks for anything but installation help. They're on a rigid troubleshooting script, and that script isn't very deep. I've had to call with two issues (both minor) and in both cases their support was useless. Both problems were later solved by software updates. Other than this one caveat, I'm a very satisfied customer.

First thought: Why would you connect them?If Smoke_Detected==true then set_furnace=off

That would be somewhat less fine-grained temperature control than I'm accustomed to.

That's actually an explicit benefit of their smoke detector. It's also a carbon monoxide detector. When it senses CO, it talks to the thermostat so that the latter disables the heater, which is the most-likely source of CO in the home. The smoke detector also acts as another sensor for Auto-Away on the thermostat, so that if you're the only one home nd you're out of the room containing the thermostat for a while, the system doesn't trip into Auto-Away.

I don't have one of the smoke detectors yet. I'm waiting for them to work the 1st Gen bugs out of it, as was alluded to at the end of the story. When the 2nd Gen device comes out, I'll probably pick one up.

EDIT: Came back and noticed that I had written "thermostat" instead of "smoke detector" in a couple of places. To clarify, I currently own a Nest Thermostat, but not one of the smoke detectors.

I'm still bemused that this energy-efficient thermostat is somehow incompatible with the energy-efficient HVAC system in my LEED-certified building.

Here's hoping the third generation model supports three-speed fans and whatever the heck else is in my system, because I would love to have some smart technology managing the (free) primary vs. (expensive) auxiliary heat.

Curious, what hvac system do you have?

You'll enjoy this:

I moved in a few weeks ago, and I'd taken it to be a 2-pipe fan coil system with electric auxiliary heat, simply because that's what the installer had programmed the thermostat for.

But, my curiosity having been piqued by all of this, I popped open the HVAC unit for the first time just now – and discovered explicit instructions for programming the thermostat for a 4-pipe fan coil system, because that's what it is.

Regardless, Nest doesn't officially support it because it has a three-speed fan; I'd have to pick a fan speed and stick with it. So instead I've gone ahead and left that $150 thermostat right where it is, complete with its automatic fan speed selection; and now that I've discovered it hardly affects my energy bill at all, I've just disabled its scheduling mode so I won't even have to think about it anymore.

Interesting. Might be able to get somewhat creative with it but...

I guess you get billed for how much chilled water you use then, right? You have both hot water supply and electric strips? Seems overkill, but I'm more familiar with southern setups.

First thought: Why would you connect them?If Smoke_Detected==true then set_furnace=off

That would be somewhat less fine-grained temperature control than I'm accustomed to.

That's actually an explicit benefit of their smoke detector. It's also a carbon monoxide detector. When it senses CO, it talks to the thermostat so that the latter disables the heater, which is the most-likely source of CO in the home. The smoke detector also acts as another sensor for Auto-Away on the thermostat, so that if you're the only one home nd you're out of the room containing the thermostat for a while, the system doesn't trip into Auto-Away.

I don't have one of the thermostats yet. I'm waiting for them to work the 1st Gen bugs out of it, as was alluded to at the end of the story. When the 2nd Gen device comes out, I'll probably pick one up.

It probably does that, not to reduce CO but to avoid distributing it. Most commercial code requires smoke detection at the air handler, and while it will shut down the unit, will also set off the alarm for fire.

IIHO no recent gas furnace should allow any combustion gases into the house, even if the heat exchanger sprung a leak - there is always positive pressure at that section of the unit.

I think the only one that can do that is Carrier's infinity setup. Should only cost you around $10k to swap it out

I have a Carrier Infinity (a rare two-stage) from 3 years ago and switched from their $300 plus stat to Nest. Very happy. The internet module I would have had to add from Carrier is close to $200 plus $10 a month service fee. I do miss some of the proprietary features of the Infinity stat, like static pressure readings - the best way to know when to change a filter.

For the naysayers that say that any programmable stat will do as well are technically correct - except almost no one actually programs their stat. So Nests do save a lot of energy used at their default versus regular stat default. For myself, I run everything manual. I have no schedule and am old enough that I find myself changing the setting during the day multiple times up or down by a degree or two. I turn it off half an hour before I leave, and use my iPhone to turn it back on a half hour to an hour (depending on the temperature differential) before I get back.

I think the only one that can do that is Carrier's infinity setup. Should only cost you around $10k to swap it out

I have a Carrier Infinity (a rare two-stage) from 3 years ago and switched from their $300 plus stat to Nest. Very happy. The internet module I would have had to add from Carrier is close to $200 plus $10 a month service fee. I do miss some of the proprietary features of the Infinity stat, like static pressure readings - the best way to know when to change a filter.

For the naysayers that say that any programmable stat will do as well are technically correct - except almost no one actually programs their stat. So Nests do save a lot of energy used at their default versus regular stat default. For myself, I run everything manual. I have no schedule and am old enough that I find myself changing the setting during the day multiple times up or down by a degree or two. I turn it off half an hour before I leave, and use my iPhone to turn it back on a half hour to an hour (depending on the temperature differential) before I get back.

Weird, I'm not familiar with it needing a monthly fee. The older way of remoting into it required a phone line, but I've never come across it.

Was it this one, or just an add on module, because this one doesn't mention a fee. It is relatively new.

I have this wonderful thing called a programmable thermostat... I set it to the temperatures I want at each time of the day and leave it to do it's thing. It comes on about 10 minutes before I get in from work and the house is warming through nicely by the time I come in the door. If I'm going to be in late or going away I just set it in away mode for however long is necessary before I leave.

What benefit does NEST offer that would make it worth $250 plus installation costs etc? Maybe I'm not the target market but I don't really find it hard to use my existing thermostat to avoid heating an empty house...

(As an aside... one tree per $250 device? Really? Pretty sure they could afford a few more trees than that...)

Home Depot ran a sale a couple weeks back where you could get 2 Nest Thermostats for $200. My neighbor went in on it with me and we split the cost. $100 is worth it with the cooling season just around the corner

I installed one of these for my parents last summer. They have seen a legitimate 20%+ savings on their energy bills month versus previous month of the previous calendar year. I'd get one, but my electric bill isn't high enough to justify it (the savings would take way too long to pay off the investment in the new gear).

They definitely work.

I tracked it for nearly 2 years and saw about $20/mo (around 10%) savings on average from before the Nest was installed.

I installed one of these for my parents last summer. They have seen a legitimate 20%+ savings on their energy bills month versus previous month of the previous calendar year. I'd get one, but my electric bill isn't high enough to justify it (the savings would take way too long to pay off the investment in the new gear).

They definitely work.

I tracked it for nearly 2 years and saw about $20/mo (around 10%) savings on average from before the Nest was installed.

That's not too bad. It paid for itself after a year. The rest is just gravy.

They are a good idea but seem to be missing a few features, I would like my lounge, kitchen, dining room at 20ºC when anyone is at home (These rooms are on the ground floor). When my wife is seeing patients her Study needs to be at 20ºC as well. Days I work from home my Office (on the 2nd floor (3rd in American) needs to be warm. At night I want the bedrooms on the 1st (2nd :-) ) floor held around 15ºC and the rest of the house at frost protection, say 10ºC, would be great. If we have guests then the other rooms on the 2nd floor need to be warm over night.

They are a good idea but seem to be missing a few features, I would like my lounge, kitchen, dining room at 20ºC when anyone is at home (These rooms are on the ground floor). When my wife is seeing patients her Study needs to be at 20ºC as well. Days I work from home my Office (on the 2nd floor (3rd in American) needs to be warm. At night I want the bedrooms on the 1st (2nd :-) ) floor held around 15ºC and the rest of the house at frost protection, say 10ºC, would be great. If we have guests then the other rooms on the 2nd floor need to be warm over night.

I have this wonderful thing called a programmable thermostat... I set it to the temperatures I want at each time of the day and leave it to do it's thing. It comes on about 10 minutes before I get in from work and the house is warming through nicely by the time I come in the door. If I'm going to be in late or going away I just set it in away mode for however long is necessary before I leave.

What benefit does NEST offer that would make it worth $250 plus installation costs etc? Maybe I'm not the target market but I don't really find it hard to use my existing thermostat to avoid heating an empty house...

(As an aside... one tree per $250 device? Really? Pretty sure they could afford a few more trees than that...)

*Those* programmable thermostats aren't backed by millions in marketing/advertising/website design to make people feel special when they buy their products.

Because clearly, the only reason any person ever buys anything is because they've been brainwashed by a marketing campaign. Nope, no product ever has any benefits over other things.

First thought: Why would you connect them?If Smoke_Detected==true then set_furnace=off

That would be somewhat less fine-grained temperature control than I'm accustomed to.

The Nest might be able to use the smoke detector as another motion detector. If it's somewhere else in the house, this could let the Nest know that there are people in the house even if they're not next to the Nest.

There are far cheaper non-connected thermostats that can be configured to turn on the air/heat before you get home, etc. and vary temperature throughout the day without having to "learn" your habits, and without being fooled by household pets wandering into their field of view. Then you add on the fact that you're not introducing yet another "tracking" device in to your home.

FWIW, we have two Nests (bought prior to Google's acquisition) and two cats, and have never seen the thermostats be spoofed by cat movement. Large dogs may be a different issue?

I'm glad to hear that cats aren't a problem. I just remember reading about the Nest early on and how animals in the house could trigger it to think people are home and adjust the thermostat prematurely and/or become confused about your comings and goings during its learning process. I don't know if this is still a problem with large dogs or not, but personally, I would prefer to tell it my schedule than have it gradually learn my schedule. I can certainly see why other people would prefer to avoid having to manually enter a schedule, but that's not a big selling point for me. I'd rather have direct control over the thermostat than let it go about its own devices.

I just don't see the draw. Yes it's nice to be able to tweak your thermostat remotely, but for 95% of the year, you should be able to get by with a simple daily or week/weekend program that most sub-$100 thermostats offer.

In other words, you don't need to spend $250 on an internet-connect thermostat to save money on energy. Use the one you have and actually set up the programmable temperature settings.

True. But it's a lovely device, with a very good UI on the device itself, and a good remote programming from any device or browser. If both my spouse and I are working but one of us decides to head home early, no need to arrive at a cold (in winter) or hot (in summer) house; just goose the temperature before leaving the office.

I often see people decrying that "nothing is made well anymore", but observe their buying habits driving that trend. There are cheaper thermostats, and there are programmables that do most of what the Nest does, but I haven't seen any that do it looking as good on the wall as Nest does. I'm not sure why that makes people who value that combination, and have the money to pay for it, silly, which I infer you think we are?

Having said that, I likely won't be buying any further Nest products now that Google owns them. I'm just not interesting in telling Google even more about what happens in my home than they can already infer from my browsing habits. :-p

No, I don't think people who buy this are silly at all. My original post was simply my opinion on the device, not any sort of castigation against people who buy it. I would agree with you that it's well-made and definitely pretty, and I'd actually enjoy having remote-control of my thermostat via a phone app, were it available, but I wouldn't pay two or three times the cost of other thermostats for the privilege.

Beyond that, it's always been my understanding that the major selling point of the Nest was that you just have to set a temperature, and then it will automatically adjust up and down by learning when you're home and when you're not. This is just not a feature I want. Maybe I don't trust electronics to do this effectively, but I'd much rather be able to set a schedule manually and set it to run, not having to worry about learning algorithms and potential pet interference, etc.

Finally, I know plenty of people who have thermostats in their homes that are fully capable of being programmed to run a scheduled routine to save energy, but the majority of them resort to manual temperature adjustments and leaving the thermostat at the same temperature all season long, without concern for energy savings. If it takes a Nest to rid them of that habit, because they're unable to figure out how to set their existing thermostat, fine, but I see that as throwing money at a problem because of laziness. (Granted, this is not true for everyone who owns a Nest, but I suspect at least some people buy it just because it "looks cool").

They are a good idea but seem to be missing a few features, I would like my lounge, kitchen, dining room at 20ºC when anyone is at home (These rooms are on the ground floor). When my wife is seeing patients her Study needs to be at 20ºC as well. Days I work from home my Office (on the 2nd floor (3rd in American) needs to be warm. At night I want the bedrooms on the 1st (2nd :-) ) floor held around 15ºC and the rest of the house at frost protection, say 10ºC, would be great. If we have guests then the other rooms on the 2nd floor need to be warm over night.

It's not missing features, you just want it to do things that it's not made for. Nest is just a simple learning thermostat, it was never really meant to be used for multi-room configurations.

You found a product that works for you, don't complain that something else is "missing" features just because it isn't exactly what you need.

I am not complaining that its missing features rather that its declared to be something revolutionary; its not. It may have a more polished UI (although choosing a single number can not be that hard:-) ) and may integrate with AC as well as heating (I dont know how that works, where I am from its seldom hot enough to need aircon) but I can not see what it does thats new or revolutionary.